For those who are unfamiliar with the Hindu gods, Ganesha is the elephant-headed god of overcoming obstacles. He also happens to be the patron god of writers. Apparently writer’s block has been around for quite some time.
I realize that a belief in multiple “gods” is considered sacrilegious by some. Both Christians and Muslims, for example, are quite strict about their belief in the One True God. But these arguments have arisen more from semantics than from any underlying philosophical divide. Even if there is only One God, still there are many aspects of God–truth, justice, honor, integrity, trust, faith, joy, peace… Using the word “god” to depict the Hindu representations of the divine is really a misrepresentation of Hindu beliefs.
Hindus believe that all reality is One. There is only One God because there is only One Everything. So I’m perfectly happy to call Ganesha the divine aspect of Mighty Faith–just one of many aspects of the One True God–if that will keep us all on the same page.
Here’s a little prayer I wrote myself that I like to offer up to Ganesha whenever I’m stuck on a writing project: “Beloved and Mighty Ganesha… I’m stuck… Please help me… Amen.”
Hey, if anyone in the Heavens is going to accept a minimalist prayer, it’s Ganesha. Writer’s bock is His Thing. I’m sure he understands.
If you happen to know that I was born in New Jersey to Caucasian parents and that I am currently writing this blog from the heart of the Bible Belt, you might wonder what I’m doing praying to an elephant-headed Hindu god-slash-divine-aspect in the first place.
Well, I read a lot. Hinduism is the world’s third largest religion, after Christianity and Islam, with over 800,000,000 followers. The Vedas, The Ramayana, and The Mahabharata–including The Bhagavad Gita–are all available on Amazon.com. Read enough about Hinduism and eventually you’ll run across Ganesha, also known as Ganesh or Ganapati.
If you’re a writer, and you discover a god for overcoming writer’s block, you file that information away, just in case. If you pray to that god and you start writing again, that’s what’s known as conversion.
But in all seriousness I haven’t converted to Hinduism. I don’t see the need. In fact, I refuse to belong to any one religion because after a while, the ones that want you to “convert” start asking you to give up all the others. I’m not giving up Ganesha. But I’m not giving up Jesus either. Or Mary or Archangel Michael or the Buddha or Kwan Yin for that matter.
I believe in the One True God, and I believe in all His vast and beautiful religions. I guess that makes me a pan-religious monotheist.
If that sounds like a mouthful, you could call me a Christian Buddhist Hindu Gaian follower of the Tao.
I don’t mention Judaism or Islam because I haven’t yet felt called to study much about them, but I do believe in Moses and Abraham and I do believe that Muhammad was a True Prophet. I just don’t see what all the fuss is about in refusing to “take sides.”
Somehow I can’t see the Great Masters of Earth all standing around in heaven arguing with each other. As far as I’m concerned, they’re standing around together and shaking their heads in perplexity.
“They just aren’t getting it,” they’re saying to each other. “What are we going to do about all this arguing? That’s not what we were trying to do at all!”
The real problem is this underlying attitude we hold to so tightly–this belief that one thing always has to be better than another. Why can’t we accept the fact that everything has its place? “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Well there’s a purpose for every matter under heaven too. And it’s time we made a little room in our minds–and in our hearts–for that idea.
So here’s a prayer for the world tonight, another prayer I wrote myself, and I offer it up to the Heavens in all earnestness:
“Beloved One True God,
in all Your myriad Divine Aspects,
please help us all who walk the Earth
to learn to Love, Honor, and Cherish one another
without any barriers of fear
and without any errors of exception,
as You have in Your Infinite Wisdom
sent so many of Your children
to teach us to do in Your name.”
Amen.